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When you greet her, Anouk makes sure to remind you to visit everyone else in your pride today.
Anouk whined about how her ears were itching on the inside. Perhaps it is time for another dust bath.
Anouk asks if you have invented any new, adorable cub names yet.
She'd been teased from very early on about her ears. Day after day, the other cubs wouldn't relent, despite her pleading with her Father, the king, to discipline them. He did, of course, but it didn't stop the whispers.
Her mother didn't name her, choosing instead to let her daughter choose her own name, and it haunted the young lioness. But instead of letting her trauma make her hard hearted, it instead made her kind.
When it was time for her to give her name in the Giving of the Name ceremony, her heart thundered in her chest. There had been many names running through her head, but none had seemed to fit.
She stepped up to Vyaterran, flip-flopping last minute between names and still unable to decide.
"Doc you give me your name?" Vya asked over the whispers of, "She has no name," crept to her ears, causing her confidence to plummet. Until a gentle breeze smelling of lavender and honey drifted through the pride, making all in attendance shiver with delight.
Goddess appeared from the shadows, caressing the sides of all the lionesses she passed.
"She has a name," a voice soft as rain but powerful as thunder said as Goddess joined her lioness at the naming alter. The lioness stared up in awe as Goddess leaned over and hugged her neck. Warmth and love spread throughout the lioness's body as tears unconsciously pricked her eyes. "My dearling," Goddess whispered to her, but the other lionesses heard it as though she was speaking directly to them.
"The others who saw you as different in a negative way are wrong. I gave you your ears, just as I gave them theirs. Never again will they belittle you, because they know that you are mine, and your name spoken directly from my lips. You are Anouk, 'My Grace' in the language of the Gods." Goddess leaned away and kissed Anouk on her nose.
"Let it be known, any that belittle the different, belittle me. There are many ways of existence. Respect them all, even if they're not your own." With a gentle pat and scratch to Anouk's cheek, Goddess faded into the night, leaving behind the calming scent.
Anouk approaches you and starts licking your muzzle, cheek and ear. You obviously should look your best today.
Vya was scared, at first, when Kolana called him to the birthing den with urgency in her calls. He'd run to her side, praying to Goddess for healthy cubs, and that she herself was alright.
But the tiny anjeer coated female -yay!- was at first sight nothing unusual. Until he looked closer at her.
"Her ears, Vya. Is our daughter deaf?" Kolana asked, fear in her voice. Deaf lions, though carefully cared for by the pride, rarely lived long, and it was usually deemed merciful for the parents to cull it rather than let it suffer.
"We'll take her to the falcon, 'lona. That's all we can do. If he says she's deaf, we decide together what happens."
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